Has anyone tried professional career advice?

[Lopéz]

I think you need to consult with a paid career coach, who will definitely be able to help you.

I would budget £150+VAT per hour or thereabouts.

I know several people who have engaged with executive coaching programmes and overall their feedback has been very good - though they have tended to be executive level rather than people in entry level positions. The same model should be applicable though.

 

[paradigm]

How do you know if you've never tried? If you want to drive, you take lessons. If you want a degree, you attend lectures. If you want a more efficient wireless network in your small business and don't understand much about network infrastructure, you approach a trained and experienced consultant. Why is a complex task such as building a career direction supposed to be a DIY task left up to the individual?

Because you, and only you know what you really want and what you are capable of achieving.

Professional advice will only seek to help you make the most out of your existing life and professional skills, perhaps educating you to seek out additional skills if they are within grasp, but nothing you will be paying for will be life-changing on it's own. Ultimately it would still be down to you to act upon the advice (that you are currently getting for free), and that takes the correct mentality, nothing will be forced on you and there is no magic bullet.

You don't need hand-outs, you don't need to know people in the right places, you need to stop self-perpetuating your own rut, and climb out of it. It's all too easy to become complacent, especially if you've been comfortable in a job for a decent length of time, but finding that motivation to better yourself, taking onboard both the direct and indirect lessons you ultimately receive from your attempts at finding a new role and LEARNING from those failings are going to be what separates the wheat from the chaff.

5 years (when I was 32) ago I was part of the furniture in a business, happy to live in my own little existence, until one day I realised what the situation actually was, that I was stagnating and I was only going to become less and less employable as time passed. I got off my backside, did some qualifications and moved on. I'm now about to move to my 3rd role in 5 years and have doubled what I'm earning in that time. I'm still not at the top of my game and could likely still push my earnings another 33% or so over the course of the next 5 years should I choose to make that push.

No one has given me a leg up, nothing has ever been without it's own hard-work (at least to initially land a role, perhaps not so much whilst I was complacent), but the only person that's ever been responsible for me, is me.

 

[dlockers]

I think you need to consult with a paid career coach, who will definitely be able to help you.

I would budget £150+VAT per hour or thereabouts.

I know several people who have engaged with executive coaching programmes and overall their feedback has been very good - though they have tended to be executive level rather than people in entry level positions. The same model should be applicable though.

Exec level coaching is an entirely different ballpark. This guy is somewhere between job centre and 'insert unknown professional advisor here'.

Unfortunately I think OP asked for a name of who fits into that second category and is a bit frustrated we haven't given that answer.

 

[dowie]

I have got out there. In the last several years I've applied to several thousand jobs, this year only 200. If you're telling me to just get a customer service job and work my way up, that's been my strategy for 20 years, working hard, making friends, never made any serious mistakes, received written praise, volunteered, have awards in volunteering, studied, hold plenty of qualifications, next year I'm 40, and still the only places that will hire me are entry level, no experience required, customer service jobs with no progression opportunities. My focus for this and next year is to stop the applications and start figuring out what is going so wrong. This isn't decent, let alone fair, I'm way too old and experienced to be working these gigs, no one is invested in coming to my aid or wants to give me a chance so why not pay money to get help is my thinking.

Yeah perhaps some sort of coaching/feedback on interviews, CVs etc.. might be needed - applying to 200 jobs and not getting any is a b it ridiculous, either suggest you weren't suitable (or CV is a mess) or you're not performing well in the interviews.

If you're working in tech then do you have the right skillsets for the jobs you're applying for?

I am stuck in entry level customer service. After trying variety of career ideas, all the typical advice, researching and educating myself, going to uni, studying courses on my own, now I am at middle age and no matter what I simply cannot progress beyond entry level customer service.

Like are you sure the courses or things you've self-studied are relevant?

You mention a foundation degree - why not use the credits to top it up to a full BSc Honours degree?

Maybe try some psychometric type service like this, get a range of career suggestions:

https://www.morrisby.com/

I think you really need to pick a career/path and look at what you will need in order to progress down that path, speak to people doing that career - what qualifications do they have, how did they break into it etc..? There is often tons of information on career-specific forums etc..

If you're naff at public speaking/interviews then perhaps check out your local toastmaster's organisation:

https://www.toastmasters.org/

Or alternatively, do some amateur acting classes or similar, get more confident in how you present yourself, how you speak etc..

 

[Lopéz]

Exec level coaching is an entirely different ballpark. This guy is somewhere between job centre and 'insert unknown professional advisor here'.

Unfortunately I think OP asked for a name of who fits into that second category and is a bit frustrated we haven't given that answer.

I know, I was just bored of his aggressive responses and the massive chip on his shoulder so I just told him what he wanted to hear :shrug:

 

[Fubsy]

No one else get the magic job fairy visit them? I just put my CV under my pillow, snooze away and fall into a dream role come morning.

EDIT: Like everyone else though, I'm going to through my 2c in.

At this level you do not need, in fact it will likely hinder you, professional career advice.

What you do need is to be able to sell yourself. Are at least a version of yourself that you can demonstrate to a potential employer that you will solve all of their problems, and not create a whole new bunch of them.

Tailor your CVs to the job specs. Go through with a highlighter to pick out the key skills, qualities and proficiencies they require. IF THEY ARE NOT IN YOUR CV YOU WILL NOT GET AN INTERVIEW FFS. Do the work for them. If your CV ticks every box, how can they refuse an interview?!

Focus on the job specs and build a narrative around why you want the job, how your current skillset can be augmented to fill the role on offer, and how you envision you will develop yourself and others.

When interviewing do not be arrogant. Do not be "woe is me". If you come across as you are in this thread no employer will chance you as you scream "problem" rather than "problem solver".
Give them that narrative you've built above. Show them that you are keen to progress, you are a self sufficient learner, that you have a wealth of CS experience and have all the examples you could think of and how you learn from each encounter (positive and negative experiences).

If IT is what you want, a big part of it is having soft skills and also being a team player, being able to communicate clearly, be diplomatic, de-escalate situations etc which you no doubt will have experience of in CS, so show them that.

Another big factor is location. I had to move over 200 miles to get my break in IT.

 

[dowie]

Tailor your CVs to the job specs. Go through with a highlighter to pick out the key skills, qualities and proficiencies they require. IF THEY ARE NOT IN YOUR CV YOU WILL NOT GET AN INTERVIEW FFS. Do the work for them. If your CV ticks every box, how can they refuse an interview?!

Slight quibble with this bit, agree with the sentiment of other bits of your post tho..

Firstly they might well reject/not interview if they have plenty of qualified candidates to sift through.

Conversely, you don't always need to tick every box, sometimes the job specs can be more like a wish list, sometimes they're put together by some HR person or sometimes a lazy hiring manager who copied and pasted stuff from a previous one. Sometimes they contain obviously silly requirements like 5 years experience of X when X is < 5 years old etc...

 

[Magiccarpet]

I would budget £150+VAT per hour or thereabouts.

Exec level coaching is an entirely different ballpark.

From my research not all advisors are asking that eye-watering level of income. But put yourself in my shoes for a second: if you're on the bottom, nothing is working, you have some ideas and you really want out - what if it actually worked??

Advice designed for higher-level executives to a service rep seems inappropriate. Yet where's the help out there apart from free stuff? It's the same quality as if you're long-term unemployed. Do a course in something? Try volunteering? Um... just work harder? "Fingers crossed." You'll get there in the end! *gulp*

When you hear someone say there's no guarantees in life, they're saying they can't or won't deal with it. The point is to have a plan. Isn't that what professional advice is there for? To deal with it when no one else can be bothered or can't hack it?

No one else get the magic job fairy visit them? I just put my CV under my pillow, snooze away and fall into a dream role come morning.

If you've ever had an uncomfortable problem and are really struggling, sometimes the strongest thing to do is to ask for help. When you work with people who hate their company and sl*g it off all the time, no interest in their projects or initiatives, it clicks in a bad way. You can't develop a perspective other than every manager got there through the leg up, you get jealous and envious, everyone around you is either lucky or unlucky. By trying to not be like them you end up like them. That's how rotting it is, so I apologise. You're right and I'm wrong.

You don't need hand-outs, you don't need to know people in the right places, you need to stop self-perpetuating your own rut, and climb out of it.

I want to offer more to society, not take more. I like doing free stuff especially for people not computer-savvy. There's a big market for people with disabilities. Tech will give more choices to the aged. It would be a privilege to create something that treated a disease. It's funny, saying this in your job will get you laughed at and treated as an illness at the same time. It's like a hilarious kind of HIV!

 

[dlockers]

Ok I've sussed this out. OP is a bot. Enough key words across multiple posts to allow his alt account to post a link to a paid careers service.

 

[dowie]

Advice designed for higher-level executives to a service rep seems inappropriate. Yet where's the help out there apart from free stuff? It's the same quality as if you're long-term unemployed. Do a course in something? Try volunteering? Um... just work harder? "Fingers crossed." You'll get there in the end! *gulp*

What is wrong with the free stuff?

Maybe try something like these vids:

https://www.youtube.com/c/CareercakeTV/videos

You perhaps should get someone to take a look at your CV/cover letter if you've had 200 rejections from it though. I'd suggest again working on soft skills too if you're bad with interviews, see toastmasters orgs etc..

 

[LuckyBenski]

My money's on either smelly, or "has no indoor voice". Strong BallistixOnZ490 vibes.

 

[Housey]

Or

A BOT that is learning.

I fear world domination.

 

[potatolord]

My success rate is about 0.5-1% for interviews, much lower for offers. I go for a wide selection of recruiters and direct employers, and through every major job website. The feedback people give is usually very generic and sketchy, random stuff like "didn't make much eye contact", when I did, or very aggressive, like the one time they literally shouted at me over the phone "What gave you the impression we were offering you a second interview!" when they offered and later withdrew a second interview offer. Getting honest help with my CV is another really major issue. There are free services but they don't help much and you don't qualify if you have a job. Online forums have never generated feedback. Basically no help.


Your direct approach is appreciated. Still, you are also making assumptions. How do you know for sure, that there is "definitely something"? If you constantly ask me questions, you're eventually going to uncover some shortcomings in my ways. Are you going to cherry-pick those and put the blame on them? I'm not flawless. You are working off intuition, not evidence. And just because I'm paid so little and have such a crappy job, it doesn't mean that I'm stupid, lazy and evil. It's rubbish being written off all the time.
Anyway thanks very much for your input but I would really like to steer this conversation towards what experiences people have had with professional advice and how it has guided them if possible please. Thank you

I would suggest you get feedback on your CV first. If you can, from someone who works in recruitment at you current employer. Even better, ask someone who has already rejected a previous application of yours.

Ask them to be brutal. You might find it's layout, wording or something else entirely. Listen to what they say: really listen.

Take their advice and make changes. Then ask them to review those.

Be positive, polite and thank them for their time. Get back in touch and let them know whether it helped. This is how you network.

Do the same for your covering email text.

Worry about interviews when you have your first stage application done.

My last word is: if you make me work to understand how you fit the criteria, you go to the bottom.of the pile.

 

[malachi]

Spam? Bumping an old thread